More Literature Life Lessons

     I found a new LDS author that every unmarried girl needs to read.  I think Jandy Branch was a fly on the wall during my life and decided to write a book with advice I needed 15 years ago.  (Sherie, make sure your girls read the Parakeet Princess series.  I will lend my kindle version to them.)
     Of course the protagonist is not based on me, but she has some really deep hurts that manifest themselves in similar ways.  This girl was voted the ugliest person in her junior high of 800.  You don't get over that.  This poor girl.  It turns out how all Mormon romance novels do, but I feel like I needed an epilogue to fix my hurts, too.
     There was one scene where they threw flower petals off a roof  naming each one something they wanted to let go.  Sibling rivalry, pine tree men, and vampires were the things that I had in common with them that needed to be tossed away.  I was not the smart one, the hard worker, the pretty one, the skinny one, the socially adept one.  I was the annoyance that was the middle one bookended by opposite greats.  I wasn't even worth paying attention to.  I once asked someone why nobody listened to me and the answer was, "Guess what's on TV!"  I am still not over that.  I guess it's why I talk so much.  If I talk enough maybe somebody will eventually hear me say something and pay attention.  I am tossing that petal away.
     Pine tree men are those you pine away for that take root in your soul and grow.  For me it's not men, but opportunities that got away. Wishing for them to come back never makes the future bright.   What is that quote from Kung Fu Panda?  Yesterday is history.  The future's a mystery.  Today is a gift, that is why they call it the present. Good bye pine trees.
     Vampires are people who feed off all that is good about you because they are weak and need it others to sustain you.  They slowly syphon off your soul leaving poison in return.  I have been a vampire.  You cannot feel the love other people give you when selfishness colors your world.  Desperation for that love makes for a pretty clogged arteries as well.  Good bye vampiritic tendencies.